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If this is your first visit, welcome to my blog of memories and observations. If you wish to be notified of new posts, enter an e-mail address above, and click on "Submit." As we move through a seventh year of this venture, I thank all who have made regular visits, as well as fellow bloggers who have found Stomp Off worth linking to. Doing this sort of thing is time-consuming, but I try to post fresh material at least once a week—let me know what you think. There is a Commentary option at the end of each post and a Guest Book can be reached by scrolling down and clicking on the quill image. I welcome your observations, reaction and/or suggestions in either spot—or both. As for blog content, the most current posts are on the home page, starting at the top. Earlier items are listed by month, year and title in the archive index. To zero in on a particular key word or subject, use the search option that is located directly beneath the blog's masthead. Most images can be enlarged with a mouse click, and there are links to some of my favorite blogs, etc.Since visitors have come from 150 countries, a translator with numerous languages is located below. You can at any time revert to English with a click at the top left of this page:

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11/3/09

About forty years ago, when I was beginning my work on a reissue project that would encompass Bessie Smith's entire Columbia and Okeh output, I dropped by John Hammond's office at Blackrock each day on my way to the studio. John had a secretary, Liz, whom I got along with very well, but sometimes she did odd things. One of her quirky routines was to send a cardboard box to me at my apartment, via the CBS Records mail room. This was at a time when I received LPs from various record companies on a daily basis (one of the perks reviewers enjoy). Liz's package was always a cardboard box of the kind used for shipping LPs, so it blended right in, but it never contained any albums. Instead, it appeared to be an extension of her waste basket: discarded items—trash, if you will. There were cigarette butts, envelopes torn open, candy wrappers, ashes—you get the picture. After receiving three or four of these in the mail, my inclination was to throw the box into my trash, unopened, but sometimes Liz would include a trade publication or two in the odd mix. The magazines—Variety, Billboard, Cash Box, etc.—were readable, once the cigarette ashes were shaken out of them, so I just kept opening these strange "gifts."

One day, however, there were no magazines amid the butts, crumpled up carbons and office trash. Instead, there was a file drawer hang-folder tagged LOUIS ARMSTRONG. It turned out to be a rather large file containing back and forth correspondence and inter-office memos from the 1950s, most of which were exchanges between George Avakian, Joe Glaser, and Goddard Lieberson. The common denominator was Louis, who was under contract to Columbia at that time.

Also included were some notes from recording and editing sessions—interesting reading, which I will share with you in a series of posts.

I will devote this first installment to production and editing notes pertaining to the production of the Louis Armstrong Plays W. C. Handy album.

If you have that album, these scribblings will make you see it in a much clearer light. Remember to click on the images for a readable view.

Your comments are welcomed

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Followers

FROM ALBERTA HUNTER'S SCRAPBOOK...

My good friend, Alberta Hunter enjoyed a very long career during which she toured extensively on her own and, during WWII and the Korean Conflict, as they called it. Her overseas travels began in 1925, when she bought a ticket to France, and continued until her death, in 1984. She loved to keep mementos, some of which you will see here.
If you run your cursor over the bottom right of the picture area, you will see a control panel that allows you to stop and examine an image or move in either direction.
If you move your cursor over the picture, you will see controls that allow you to pause and take a better look.

Who I am ...

Some of my great grandfather's sketches

My great grandfather, Carl August Broberg, was a Copenhagen coffee importer with a passion for all things maritime. He was constantly sketching (mostly ships) on any piece of paper he could find. I have hundreds of his wonderful drawings, dating as far back as the 1860s. Many of them are rendered on the backs of waybills, calling cards, memos, etc. Here is a small sample.

Slideshow Gallery

When you write about the music, record companies do their best to grow your record collection, but they also love to send out press releases and those 8 x 10 glossies. I eventually threw out my stacks of press releases, but I kept the photos and added a few of my own blurry pre-digital images.

Remembering Bessie Smith

It was a chance hearing of a Bessie Smith recording, played on the Danish Radio's weekly "Jazz Club" program (it's theme was Jelly Roll Morton's "Oh, Didn't He Ramble") that brought my attention to jazz and blues. My mother thought I had become obsessed with it, and she was right, but her now 60-year-old prediction that I would "grow out of it" did not come true—obviously. So, since Bessie opened the door and totally changed the direction of my life, I think it is only fitting that I maintain this little tribute on my blog. Images will change from time to time, but this is Bessie's spot.

A big Thank You to John Francis for some of the rarest of these images.